In today's
New York Times Book Review, Jeremy McCarter reviewing two new books about Arthur Conan Doyle:
Born to an Irish family in Scotland in 1859, Conan Doyle derived what Lycett calls his "fantasist" streak from his mother, who had a genius for telling stories, and from a childhood devouring Poe’s mysteries, Verne’s sci-fi adventures and Sir Walter Scott’s historical romances — all genres he later explored. His reverence for fact and logic was rooted in his medical training at Edinburgh, where the most colorful bunch of professors this side of Hogwarts exposed him to their powers of deduction, zeal for forensics and enthusiasm for cocaine.
( Goudge and Rowling - spoilers for A LITTLE WHITE HORSE )Another thing I've recently realized is that, because my work has included paying attention to contemporary kidlit, I tend to forget that many other adults my age - particularly those who aren't parents - don't realize how sophisticated and wide-ranging its genres have become. So, for instance, someone who hasn't encountered Debi Gliori or Herbie Brennan or Jane Langton or Cynthia Kadohata or E. L. Konigsburg or Lemony Snicket or Nancy Willard might well hail Rowling as the first children's writer they've encountered whose characters are darker and more complex/ambiguous than the ones they remember from grade school. I'm not saying that JKR's characters aren't awesome, but what's niggling at me is more a sense that other writers aren't getting enough credit from the general public because they;re too rarely heard about
unless the word "scrotum" shows up in the first chapter. [ETA: ...inspiring
The Newbery Jewels, among other things.]
Speaking of which, Roger Sutton
introduced "a first-class
list of out-n-proud GLBTQ-and-sometimes-Y fiction" with the words "Who needs old closet case Dumbledore..." (go read the post - he mentions Susan Cooper and other authors as well, and there are additional recs in the comments). ...Roger's earlier comments on
the brouhaha pretty much mirror my own reaction towards anything Rowling says these days - it's entertaining, but until she puts it into a book, it ain't canon as far as I'm concerned. Or, to quote
another comment of his,
I don't think authors need stay home and shut up (well, I guess I could give some examples of some who should but I'm saving them for my memoirs) but I would like them to recognize that, when it comes to commentary on their own work, they don't get to make claims that aren't borne out by the text. [...]No points, either, for something "my editor made me take out." Which is why the heroine of the book not known as Tomorrow is Another Day is not known as Pansy O'Hara.
I hadn't seen
the Maclean's review of
The Seeker before now. I am charmed, especially since it's the first direct attribution I've seen of Cooper's reaction to the movie. It also mentions that when Cooper offered her papers to the director of the Toronto Public Library's Osborne Collection, during a ride to the airport, the director "gave me the greatest compliment I ever had as a writer. She ran into the curb."
Also, I haven't read these yet, but
the Horn Book has reposted
some essays Cooper wrote for them (on Tolkien and others), apparently for a limited time. If you scroll down, there are additional articles by Lloyd Alexander, Laurence Yep, and others.
This entry has gotten out of control. I'm going to resort to quotes-only Yuletide recs so I can go on to what I meant to be be doing after the NYTBR distracted me. *g*
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